240 



marked, that some plants of the juria were 

 entirely destitute of fruit, and others exhibited a 

 considerable quantity ; this circumstance seems 

 to indicate a palm-tree of separate sexes. 



Wherever the Rio Temi forms coves, the 

 forest is inundated to the extent of more than 

 half a league square. To avoid the sinuosities 

 of the river, and shorten the navigation, it is 

 here performed in a very extraordinary manner. 

 The Indians made us leave the bed of the river ; 

 and we went up toward the south, across the 

 forest, through paths (sendas), that is, through 

 open channels of four or five feet broad. The 

 depth of the water seldom exceeds half a fa- 

 thom. These sendas are formed in the inun- 

 dated forest like paths on dry ground. The 

 Indians, in going from one mission to another, 

 pass with their boats as much as possible by the 

 same way; but the communications not being 

 frequent, the force of vegetation sometimes pro - 

 duces unexpected obstacles. An Indian furnish- 

 ed with a machette, (a great knife the blade of 

 which is fourteen inches long), stood at the 

 head of our boat, employed continually in chop- 

 ping off the branches, that cross each other 

 from the two sides of the channel. In the 

 thickest part of the forest we were astonished 

 by an* extraordinary noise. On beating the 

 bushes a shoal of toninas (fresh water dolphins) 

 four feet long surrounded our boat. These ani- 

 mals had concealed themselves beneath the 



